


A Bouquet Without Orchids

by sweetNsimple



Series: Orange Roses and White Lilies [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Asexual Character, Asexual Cisco Ramon, Comfort, M/M, harrisco, insecure Cisco
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 12:02:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7360672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetNsimple/pseuds/sweetNsimple
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry gave himself a moment to understand what he had just been told.  This was news to him, which he had not expected.  “You don’t find me sexually attractive.”<br/>“Ding ding ding!  Give that guy an award, he gets it.”  Cisco grimaced at Harry’s shirt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Bouquet Without Orchids

“Okay, but, wait, _stop_ – ” Cisco latched onto Harry’s hand before it could dip beneath the waist of his jeans.  It was a second too late as Harry had already begun to pull back, confused by the panic on the younger man’s face.

To be clear, things had gotten a little… intense.  And very quickly at that.  They had been arguing as per usual, revolving around Harry’s headache and Cisco choosing this particular evening of the week to blast Steve Miller Band throughout S.T.A.R. Labs.  But then they had been revolving around one another, Harry circling closer while Cisco kept him at the edge of his sight – under such circumstances, it would be better to say that Harry had revolved around Cisco and then collided with him.  Abruptly, they had been standing far too close, Cisco’s eyes far too dark, and his lips too inviting.

Harry had lost a few seconds of his life to the swell of _Jungle Love_ and the taste of cherry as their mouths met somewhere halfway between them. 

Kissing Cisco had not been a revelation or a surprise, necessarily.  Much like Harry had been orbiting Cisco before they came together, so had they been dancing around the tension between them.  The theoretical ‘There _could_ be’ and the hypothetical ‘ _We_ can be’ seemed to sometimes be on the tips of their tongues several times a day when they stood in a room alone, scheming, plotting, building, creating, _cooperating_. 

But then someone else would interrupt – Jesse or Snow or Barry and sometimes even Cisco himself – and the moment was gone, replaced with ‘They could _have_ been’ and ‘We _almost_ were’. 

No, kissing Cisco was much like a sigh of relief, coming home after a very long day.  It was the ‘Here we are’ after a tiring game of Hide and Seek and the ‘I’m home’ after being to war.

In Harry’s mind, further intimacy had seemed natural.  The kiss had been his green light.

It was time to finally be with Cisco.

The fact that Cisco did not seem to be on the same page startled him and he took a step back, though he kept one hand on Cisco’s one hip.  His thumb followed the faintest slope of bone beneath soft flesh. 

“What is it?” Harry asked, more snappish than he intended to be, but the kiss had not magically cured his headache and he was also not well known for enjoying any sort of lack of control.  And this _was_ a lack of control, albeit over a romantic interest that he knew was reciprocated.

“I like kisses,” Cisco blurted out. 

Harry’s eyebrow shot up.  “Good to know.  Is that all?”

“Yes.”  Cisco paused and then cursed under his breath.  “And, by ‘yes’, I mean kissing is the _only_ thing I like.”

Harry stared at him.

Cisco stared at everything but Harry.

“I don’t understand,” Harry finally admitted.  “You’re going to have to explain this to me.”

Cisco took a deep breath.  “Okay, here we go.  _Again_.  Okay, so, like, imagine that you have all these TV shows on, right?  You have crime on one station, romance on another, science fiction on channel six, and almost everyone else in the world has their favorite channel – or likes more than one channel!  But then there’s you and you don’t actually like TV.  As a matter of fact, if anyone tries to turn on the TV while you’re in the room, you leave because TV’s are just like, not a thing for you at all.”

The entire time Cisco created this scenario, he made wide, animated gestures with his arms, moving his body as if to portray a television and then moving again to portray how he did not like that television.

Harry watched, simply because he had no clue what was going on and if he blinked, he might miss the moment where this all came together like an epiphany.

“Instead of TV,” Cisco was saying, “you really love reading!  Reading is just something you can do all day, no TV’s in sight.”  Cisco opened his mouth to keep going, but made the mistake of _finally_ looking at Harry instead of _not_ at Harry and realized that his captive audience was not learning anything from his lecture.

Cisco closed his eyes for a moment, arms coming up toward his body and curling protectively over his chest.  When he looked at Harry again, he was a hardened, exhausted man. 

“I’m asexual,” Cisco said.  “Which means that I don’t experience sexual attraction toward anyone – I mean _anyone_ , including you.  And I don’t want to have sex.  I _really_ do not want to have sex.”

Harry considered this.  This was news to him, which he had not expected.  “You don’t find me sexually attractive.”

“Ding ding ding!  Give that guy an award, he _gets_ it.”  Cisco grimaced at Harry’s shirt.

“But you like kissing.”  Harry moved his hand up from Cisco’s hip to cup his chin, moving the younger man to look at him.  “And you love me.”

Cisco jerked.  “Hey, whoa, man, no one said anything about _love_ – ”

“Lying is unbecoming of you, Cisco.  How long have we been working together?  I have been told by a trusted source that we even live in each other’s pockets.”

Cisco scowled.  “Jesse is exaggerating.”

“Jesse is absolutely right.  At this point, I honestly cannot say with certainty where I live – here or with you.  You could very well be living with me, I have enough of your underwear in my laundry.”

“Are you saying we should move in together?”

“I’m saying that I know you love me and, though you may try your hardest to continuously sink your low self-esteem to the bottom of the ocean, you are fully aware of my affection for you.”

“I do _not_ have a low self-esteem.  I know I’m the shit.”

“I know a lot of things about you, Cisco.”  He brought his other hand up so that he was framing Cisco’s face.  “Today, I learned another new thing.  Like every other fact and habit of yours, I can deal with it.”

“This isn’t the same as me singing in the shower, Harry,” Cisco snapped.  “I’m not having sex with you – ever.  It doesn’t matter if I get your name tattooed on my ass.  If I try to be intimate with you, if I try to even give you a _hand job_ , I’ll hate you.”  Cisco’s next breath was ragged.  “I’ve hated every person I’ve ever dated for making me do things with them.”

“I want a list with full names and current addresses,” Harry decided.  “And I am not trying to say that because we have feelings for one another that your feelings toward sex are going to change.  You’re telling me that you don’t find me sexually attractive.  You’ve still called me cute, so you find me appealing.”

“That’s out of context!”  Cisco growled.  “I said that you only get extra cheese on your big belly burgers ‘cause you’re cute.”

“You acknowledge that I’m cute – moving on.  You don’t want sex – fine.  I can take care of my own bodily needs.  It’s your intelligence and your company more so that I’m after.”

“No.”  Cisco’s denial was as firm as a steel door, as was his glare.  “No, you do _not_ get to make a decision like that in three minutes!  You’re just going to regret it later.”

His hands came around Harry’s wrists and held on tight as if, given the chance, Harry might try to escape and Cisco wasn’t ready for that. 

“So you want me to take more time to consider my life if I were to not have sex with my significant other?” 

“This is a serious issue!”

“For whom?”

“Harry.”  Cisco sighed.  “Take time and actually _think_ about it.  ‘Cause, me?  I’m done.  I can’t handle one more time of someone saying they cared for me and then realizing that they only cared as long as they thought caring would change me.”

The bitterness in Cisco’s voice aggravated Harry and he pondered the pros and cons of throwing random and readily available objects at Cisco’s head for his momentary stupidity. 

But then he took a step back and left without a word to do as he was told.  He was already certain that he would return and that he and Cisco would share many more kisses.

There would have to be other ground rules, Harry recognized as he took a turn down the corridor.  There were ground rules in every relationship.  These ground rules in particular – what was acceptable and what was unacceptable in terms of physical (not sexual) intimacy and showing affection – were nothing new to Harry and should not have been new to anyone entering any relationship.  Everyone had their hard and soft limits without having kinks, fetishes, or preferences. 

This was a part of Cisco’s sexuality.  Cisco was _asexual_ and past partners had drilled it into him that this was the ‘make it or break it’ for relationships. 

Harry wanted to meet personally with these individuals.  He was not a man who dealt with fools or idiots.  A part of him considered that these past relationships may have been with individuals who were more sexually active, more given to sexual urges and bodily reactions.

Harry was in his early fifties and the last time he had had a lover was in his dearly missed and departed wife Tess Morgan.  Cisco _did_ arouse him and Harry wouldn’t be opposed to having sex with the younger man, but if Cisco was against it, then Harry would survive. 

Harry had his own hands and an internet overflowing with sex toys he could purchase discretely if he needed to release sexual tension.

After considering Cisco and no sex and always coming to the same conclusion – that having Cisco would make it worth it – Harry walked back to the lab he shared with Cisco and their horde of marker boards.

Five minutes had passed and Cisco hastily screwed his face up into something slightly less pathetic than the broken expression he had been wearing microseconds before he saw Harry in the archway.

Cisco, standing in the middle of the mess of metal and schematics that was their combined efforts at work, crossed his arms protectively over his chest again.

“Back so soon?” Cisco asked.

“Yes.”  Harry raised an eyebrow at Cisco.  “I’m actually here to pick up my significant other.  For a date of sorts.”

Cisco’s mouth gaped open before he remembered how to breathe.  “A date?”  His voice was hoarse.  “Does he know of this date?  Because I don’t think he does.”

“It’s a surprise,” Harry said, raising his pointer finger to his lips as his mouth quirked ever so slightly into a smile.  “It would be best not to tell him.”

“Might be too late for that.”  Cisco stood still as Harry loped leisurely toward him, swaying into his space.  “I can guarantee you, though, that he is still very surprised.”

“It’s the thought that counts,” Harry decided.  “When he gets here, I plan to ask him for a kiss.  He’s told me that he likes kisses.”

“Oh, really?”  Cisco’s voice was high and shrill.  “Wow, imagine that.  _I_ like kisses.  I like kisses a lot.  And I’m the only one here.  Am I the significant other of which you speak of?”

Harry considered him from his sneakers to the top of his head.  “If you have to ask, then I’m leaving without you.”

“Shut up, Harry,” Cisco huffed, and then he threw his arms around Harry’s shoulders and pulled him in.  They clashed and Harry rested his hands on Cisco’s hips while lips became sweetly acquainted. 

When they finally parted, Cisco was dazed and smiling.  “I like kisses,” he said again.

“So I’ve heard,” Harry replied lowly, speaking against Cisco’s mouth.

Cisco’s fingers tickled the back of his neck.  The younger man searched his face – what for, Harry was not entirely certain of.  He only knew that Cisco found it when his dark eyes lit up like stars reflected off of water on a moonless night and he smiled. 

“You’re a dick,” Cisco stated, “but you’re a good kisser, so I guess I’ll keep you around.”

“As long as I have some value to you,” Harry muttered.

“You,” Cisco pecked him on the lips, “Are,” another kiss, “very,” and another, “valuable,” again, “to,” Harry chased his mouth, “Team Flash.”  And then Cisco was laughing as he broke away from Harry.  _True Fine Love_ blasted through the workshop and covered Harry’s growl.

He still had a headache.

However, Cisco was grabbing his coat as well as Harry’s sweater and was coming back to him with a bounce in his step, still weary but better than he had been even ten minutes ago. 

All in all, it wasn’t a bad tradeoff.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope to write more with Ace Cisco. I hope, anyway!


End file.
